Recommending young adult books beyond bestsellers

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Only Korean kid in town,
Mom and Dad won’t talk about family history.
Chloe will uncover her heritage, no matter what!

On Multicultural Kids’ Books Day, let’s travel to Chloe’s boring town where the middle-schooler’s parents won’t discuss whatever made them move from Korea to the US, and everyone assumes she’s good at math and music because “she’s Asian” since no one there knows the difference between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean!

If you’ve ever felt like a fish in the wrong school, like this book cover shows, you understand Chloe’s wish to know her family’s history.

Books as mirrors, books as windows – thank you to the organizers and supporters of Multicultural Children’s Book Day (see the list below)!

My book talk: Chloe is so frustrated with her parents’ silence about Korea and her classmates saying she gets good math grades and first chair violin in orchestra “because she’s Asian” that the thirteen year old is ready to pop!

Her new social studies teacher is Korean-American!? Chloe is so happy.
Ms. Lee assigns a family history project – Chloe is delighted!
Her parents are horrified – are they secret illegal aliens or something?

While her best friend is as obsessed with Korean culture as she is, Chloe really wants to know her family’s connection with their homeland – is that really so much to ask?
+++++Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is in its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity on home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents, and educators.

Census data shows that 37% of the US population consists of people of color, yet only 10% of children’s books published have diverse characters and content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that.

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

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About Me:

Katy Manck, MLS
Librarian-at-large & independent book reviewer, I recommend great books beyond the bestseller lists, rather than reviewing every YA book I read. (No spoilers - I promise!) On Twitter @BooksYALove

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